Fascinated

Gathering her close, he gazed down at her upturned face, a wicked gleam in his eyes. 'Before that rude encounter, I meant to mention you look good enough to eat in those…'

'Unmentionables.' Her lashes fluttered in demure parody.

'Ah-' Amused understanding sparkled in his eyes. 'We must be discreet away from the Hotel de Paris. If I were to take care with the exact wording, might I do-'

'Anything at all…'

His grin was sinful. 'Then, I hope you have considerable leisure, because anything at all quite boggles the mind.'

'I have all the time in the world,' she murmured. 'Now that you've scared Dickie away.' She eased away slightly and surveyed him with a mild gravity. 'But you needn't have gone so far, Flynn. Dickie will talk. There's sure to be gossip.'

'We could marry and deter scandalous rumor,' he lightly proposed.

She gently shook her head. 'I appreciate your gesture, but such a sacrifice is unnecessary. I live outside society, no one knows me, my family is distant and unconcerned-'

'Don't you wish to marry me?' A faint frown drew his brows together.

'Be serious, Flynn.'

'I am.'

'Of course you're not. You were about to leave Monte Carlo this morning. You'd hate to be married.'

Her blunt directness forced him to question his motives. 'Maybe I wouldn't.'

She laughed. 'Maybe? There, you see. You'd be out the door and halfway to Asia before a week was up.'

'Have you considered you might be opposed to marriage?'

'What if I am? I've reason enough.'

'This wouldn't be the same.'

'Flynn! Stop. You don't know what you're saying. Think for a minute, are you actually willing to give up your freedom?' Her expression sobered. 'Because I'd require fidelity.'

A sudden silence fell.

And then he smiled. 'I'm willing to risk it if you are.'

'Losing your freedom, you mean.'

He nodded.

'We should be madly in love to even consider this.'

'I am.' Until that moment, he had not known.

'How can you be sure?'

'Nothing's sure, darling. But if you don't take the risk, you'll never know. And if this isn't love, I don't care, because it's better than all the amusements and journeys in the world.'

She grinned. 'It is, isn't it? It's even better than cherry creme chocolates.'

His smile was pure sunshine. 'That might be a draw. But if you say yes, I promise you chocolates for breakfast every day.'

'Ummm, tempting.'

'You don't really want to live without me, do you?'

His question cut to the core, and the simple truth was she didn't. 'Can you tell?'

He faintly dipped his head.

'Because you know women.'

'No, because your happiness is mine.'

'Before last night, I hadn't known what happiness was.'

He smiled. 'Nor I.'

'Tell me we're not making a huge mistake.'

'I can do that. We're not. Marry me and I'll make you happy.'

'So sure?'

He was a gambler who always played for broke, and he had never been so sure. 'I guarantee it.'

'One question more before we leap into the abyss. You're not just Mr. Suffolk, are you, Your Grace?'

'Does it matter?'

'Not to me. I fell in love with Mr. Suffolk.'

'And so I'll always remain, although you may be addressed as the Duchess of Grafton on occasion.'

'You aren't!' The Duke of Grafton was the byword for vice and beauty and wildness and of course a king's ransom in wealth. 'I see why you don't tell women if they don't know.'

'I don't tell anyone. So if you don't mind being a duchess, my vanity would be assuaged with a simple affirmative to my one and only proposal of marriage.'

'If not for Dickie, you might not have-'

He stopped her words with a kiss, and when he raised his mouth a lengthy time later, he softly commanded, 'Just say yes.'

Her mouth quirked into a grin. 'Convince me.' And he did with finesse and skill and in the end with a wild abandon that destroyed Madame Denise's lilac-colored creation and momentarily stopped the world.

The Pleasure Game by Thea Devine

Chapter One

Sherburne House, Hertfordshire, England Spring season, 1812

She was spoiled and she knew it, and she wanted what she wanted when she wanted it, and she was very well aware of that vice, too.

She had said she wanted Marcus Raulton, a careless comment publicly made, even knowing his libertine reputation superseded the attraction of his wealth and station, and now the pitch was in the fire and Drastic Measures were About to be Taken.

Her father had overheard.

Blast it all.

What demon of misfortune had put him within earshot the very moment she was making idle party conversation with her dearest friend, Ancilla, she would never comprehend.

But the end result was a disaster: her father believed she wanted Marcus Raulton, that she was in hot pursuit of Marcus Raulton, and he meant to do everything in his power to stop her.

No wonder he had been in such a tear to return to Sherburne House this weekend. He wanted her out of London, and he wanted to see Jeremy-Jeremy Gavage, of all people. Her father had not been in a hurry merely to take care of business as she had just painfully discovered.

No, he had been intent on sticking his nose in her business-and enlisting Jeremy's help in the process.

How fortunate she had eavesdropped on him!

Otherwise she wouldn't have known, wouldn't have gotten wind of this crack-brained scheme of her father's to have Jeremy distract her. It was enough to make any woman insensible with rage. It was ludicrous; it was insulting, as if she weren't old enough to know what she was doing.

That was the whole of it: her father still thought her untouched and unsophisticated-still ten years old in his mind no doubt.

Blast the fates.

No wonder he had called upon Jeremy to try to contain her.

He certainly couldn't. She had trained her father well, in the absence of a mother's constraining influence. He knew that she would do the exact opposite of what he wanted. So why should he risk confirming his worst